Begins with a D
by Citca-Kun
Summary: Yako suspected something wasn't right. For one, she could see herself lying on the ground several feet away. Two, she didn't recognize where she was. Three, she could pass through walls. Something wasn't right here.


_A.N_- I don't own the series, if I did, I wouldn't be on here.

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><p><em>I'm dead! Dead you fool<em>! She screamed in unheard fury at the detective.

_DEAD! D-E-A-D! DEAD_!

"Well, Yako's been missing for…. 336 hours…and we still have no leads. Could she have finally run away?" Ishigaki asked, fiddling with a small figurine. Sasazuka reached down silently and crushed the doll.

Ishigaki cried silent tears.

"But I would have known about sensei's disappearance!" Neuro piped up, wearing his favorite mask of concern. Yako fumed behind him, wavering slightly with the light breeze.

Sasazuka sat, thinking deeply.

.

.

.

How about we start at the beginning, shall we?

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.

.

.

It wasn't cold, like how they say in books and movies. It wasn't warm and comforting either. It…. just was. There was no bright light beckoning her, no demon whispering in her ear, nothing.

Just Yako and her corpse.

It was a rather strange thing to see; she was lying there, all peaceful-like and dead.

Dead.

She couldn't get over that. She wasn't told she had just died, she just…knew. Of course, the fact that her body wasn't breathing and she had taken on a blue-ish color might have clued her in.

But aside from that, she knew. Deep down, in the very lowest, darkest, unreachable pit in her heart, she knew. She knew she was dead.

She knew she had been dead for exactly three hours, nine minutes, and seven seconds.

She didn't know, however, who killed her. Or how she died.

Then again, she hadn't looked to closely at her body for puncture wounds and lacerations.

It just seemed….wrong.

Like she was desecrating something precious

What she was now….she didn't know. A ghost, probably. She looked at one of her hands. It looked solid enough; She stared at it for what seemed like ten minutes.

Most likely, actually. It seemed like she faded in and out a little. But only once in a while.

Well. She was dead.

God, that was still a shock to her.

_Dead_.

Dead.

**Dead**.

_**Dead**_.

_Dead_.

_**Dead**_.

Dead.

No matter how many times she said it differently, or the same, it still _sounded_ _wrong_ to her. She wasn't ready for this.

She stopped, and thought about that for a moment.

She wasn't ready for this.

_Ha_._Ha._

Nobody is ready for death.

.

.

No one.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

It had gotten light out. She hadn't realized it was dark until…well…until she saw the light. She lazily looked around; she didn't recognize the décor.

She didn't recognize…the…wait a moment…._Where_ _was_ _she_?

She shut her eyes and tried desperately to remember.

All that came to mind was Neuro telling her something.

What did he say to her? She concentrated. Nothing came to mind. She tried harder.

"_Louse_." Got something.

"_Where are you?_"

Wait…. that didn't seem to be from memory. For one, the sound and the lips didn't sync up…. and it sounded like it came from outside her noggin.

"_Where….?_" Neuro? Was he here?

Yako snapped her eyes open. It was blindingly bright. But it was just barely morning a minute ago… blinking back the colored lights in her eyes, Yako looked around again.

This was _the_ _office_.

"_Yako_…"

She whirled around, expecting to see Neuro and there he was, sitting in his chair behind troy.

She sighed with relief. It was a daydream she'd just had. Just one of those moments where you forget where you are.

"Sorry Neuro!" she chirped, trotting over to his desk. "Just kinda went off into la-la land. Sorry!"

He didn't acknowledge her.

There was a pile of newspapers that stood as tall as her knees on his desk. _Damn_. She was going to be busy today. She reached for the stack; the top newspaper read "The National EnQuiry."

"So, Neuro, what are we going to do today?" She asked, thrown out of her stride when her hand swiped air. She looked down, and reached for the papers again.

Her hands passed through the stack.

And Yako. Started. _Yelling_.

"OMYFRAKINGGOD! WHATTHEHELLISGOINGON? My-my-hand-hand-it-and-then-ther-was-and-it-" she descended into a babbling fit, hunkered down on the floor.

Neuro failed still to acknowledge her, even in all of her panicked glory.

After Yako had calmed down a little, she was able to come to a logical conclusion. Two, actually.

The first, and most disliked of the choices, was that she was still recently deceased.

The second, and most preferable, was that Neuro did something to her, via the 777 tools of hell.

She decided to go with the latter.

"Neuro? What the hell did you _do_ to ME?"

No reaction. _Typical_. Yako stood up and approached troy. Neuro steadily gazed at the door, chin resting on a palm.

"Neuro? Neuro!" She slammed her hands down on troy. She glanced down. She wasn't falling through. Yako stepped back a few paces, and touched the couch. She didn't fall through.

She grinned a mischievous grin. _Revenge….._

A couch pillow lay within arms reach. She grabbed at it. Her fingers passed right through it. She looked at it, puzzled; she placed a hand on the pillow. Her fingers didn't pass through. She tried to grab it a second time. She failed.

_So….I can touch things, but not move them…._ _Damn_. Yako mused, setting herself down lightly on the couch. Something tickled the back of her mind…it felt like it was important…..it clicked…..She leapt to her feet, and scampered back over to troy.

"Neuro! Is this your fault? Answer me!" She watched as he sighed and leaned back in his chair. He didn't notice her.

"Neuro, you're a-" and she let out a string of creative and vulgar insults that would have made a bushy-haired brunette located in a completely different fandom yell out "RON!".

Neuro simply continued to stare at the office door. So he didn't do anything to her. She _was _dead. Her initial gut-feeling had been right.

Damn.

And, oh well.

Yako smiled again and swore at Neuro a few minutes more, saying everything she had ever wanted to say to him, but never could.

There were perks to being dead.

Yako sat on troy, blankly staring Neuro in the face. His green eyes were really creepy if you stared at them too long. It was because they almost never blinked; They just _stared._ _and stared_. She sighed, and shifted her attention to Akane. The hair had pulled itself into the wall.

Hiding, probably.

Yako sighed again. She knew it was pointless. It wasn't like anyone would hear it, and she definitely didn't need to breathe.

But old habits die hard. No pun intended….

She vaguely wondered if she should mourn her own death.

She knew she was dead. She knew Neuro could not see or hear her…. he probably couldn't even…. feel…. her…..

Well, now…. there _were _perks to being dead. She speculated for a moment whether or not Neuro had soft, silky, girly hair.

She bet he did.

A pale, slender hand reached forward, slowly, and a little hesitantly, toward the demon's hypothesized soft girly hair. It flickered in front of her before it even got close to the demon's head, causing Yako much surprise and alarm.

The door opened quickly behind her, and she twisted around to see who it was. Sasazuka slowly entered, pulling out a lighter.

"We still haven't found her. When did she disappear again?" Sasazuka asked, his lighter making small clicking sounds as some flame flicked to life.

"Day before yesterday." Neuro said, eyeing the smoke with distaste. Sasazuka took a long drag on the cancer-stick, looking out at the bright afternoon. "She didn't show up for work, and she wasn't at home, school, with her friends, or at any of the 5,963 restaurants that she normally frequents." Sasazuka raised an eyebrow.

"Did you-?"

"Yes. Why?" Neuro replied, a frown growing on his face. The cop shook his head and shrugged.

"Well, we still have found nothing, no clues. Nothing. I was just swinging by to see if you had found anything. Her mother, she's the one who initially filed the missing persons report, said you might know."

Yako's chest seized up. _Her mother…_ _What was her mother going to do? This was going to be hard on her….._Yako slid off of troy and slumped against it. _ Her mother had already lost her husband….and now her only child….._ Yako wrapped her arms around her knees and closed her eyes. Her mother's smiling face popped into her mind.

Her crazy, lovable, can't-cook-to-save-her-life loving mother.

The sound of sobbing caused her to look up. The office had been replaced with her dining room. Her mother was at the table; tears were rolling down her cheeks, and it looked like she hadn't slept in weeks.

"Yako….come home…" her mother murmured. Yako's throat clenched up, and ghostly tears threatened to spill.

"_Mom_…._I can't…_" Yako said, moving over to her mother's side. "_I'm sorry. I'm so sorry._ "

"_I'm so sorry._ _I just went out with Kanae and friends to try this new restaurant._" Yako apologized, phantom tears rolling down her face. "_Mom, I'm sorry. I left early, for work….and….and…."_ and what? Yako wiped her tears away, and thought. She left early…and…what? After she left the restaurant was a blank. Her mother broke down into fresh sobs.

Yako stood next to her until she had cried herself to sleep.

When her mother had fallen asleep, she wandered through the house. Her mother's room was a mess, as always. Her room…. well…she was calling the kettle black there. It was the same as when she had left it.,

Walking around the house taught her a valuable skill. She'd figured out how to pass through walls. Sure, she'd run into the walls and doors a few times, but eventually she got the hang of it.

It was kinda fun.

She deliberately refused to go through open doors now, instead opting to pass through the walls. Thick walls were the most fun. They actually felt like something. Like passing through Jell-O.

Yako paused to look at a picture of her family. They were taken back when she was in middle school. They were all so happy then. Yako smiled. It was a soft, sad smile, one that rested lightly on her lips.

"_I'm sorry._" She said, and concentrated on the office.

Her mother shifted in her sleep. Muttering something that resembled

"_Not your fault, honey_."

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><p>Just had this on my computer. Not sure if I will continue it. Hm<p> 


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